{"id":1779,"date":"2020-07-23T13:35:04","date_gmt":"2020-07-23T18:35:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/covid-19\/?p=1779"},"modified":"2020-07-23T13:36:00","modified_gmt":"2020-07-23T18:36:00","slug":"how-we-are-making-decisions-regarding-covid-19-policies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/covid-19\/2020\/07\/23\/how-we-are-making-decisions-regarding-covid-19-policies\/","title":{"rendered":"How we are making decisions regarding COVID-19 policies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Guidance Document: Decision Triggers for Discussion of Closure, Partial Closure, and\/or Reduction of On-Campus Presence of Students and\/or Personnel<\/b><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">大象传媒 Western\u2019s plan for a safe return to campus is the result of hundreds of hours of research, planning and consultation with campus and community experts. As with our other COVID-19 policies and guidelines, the following guidance will be revised as our understanding of COVID-19 continues to develop and as our situational awareness changes with students and personnel back on campus for the academic year. As we continue to adapt our general policies and procedures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, all units and individuals will continue to do their best to implement and operationalize guidance as best they can in the spirit of that guidance, understanding that not all details will be perfectly tailored to fit every situation across campus life. This guidance is intended to decrease the risk of the spread of disease, but it cannot eliminate all risk.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><b>Decision Triggers \u2013 Overview<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A combination of community and campus criteria may lead to (1) further reduction of personnel or students on campus, (2) partial closure of campus, or (3) full closure of campus.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Should any of these decisions be triggered, the campus community will be notified by means of their university email, the university website, and as appropriate by Griffon Alert and social media.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Decisions and other responses to these considerations will come as a result of collaborative decisionmaking among leaders from across the campus community.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Decision Triggers \u2013 General Considerations<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A University campus setting has multiple risk factors for transmission of COVID-19.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We are and will continue to work hard on communication to the entire campus community as well as campus visitors regarding necessary public health and hygiene practices.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Community Considerations<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Significant official action by state, local, or other public authorities relevant to the situation.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Significant escalation of community spread in the St. Joseph or Buchanan County areas.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Upward trajectory of documented cases of COVID-19 cases OR percentage of positive tests (with flat or increasing volume of tests) for 14 days.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Inability to obtain adequate testing for COVID-19 due to supply chain issues or other concerns.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Number of hospital admissions \/ hospital capacity \/ hospitals unable to treat all patients without crisis care.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Degradation of robust testing capacity in community, including screening and contact tracing for symptomatic individuals.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Trends among peer institutions of higher education (particularly public institutions in 大象传媒).<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Actions taken by local school districts.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Campus Considerations<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Increase in percentage of positive tests \/ sustained day-over-day increases \/ overall rate.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Employee absenteeism (particularly in custodial and physical plant services due to critical need to maintain clean and safe campus).<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Personal protective equipment (PPE) shortages impacting ability to prevent spread, provide care, follow campus guidelines, etc.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Clusters of positive cases overwhelming ability to quarantine\/isolate and contact trace.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Upward trajectory of documented cases of COVID-19 cases OR percentage of positive tests (with flat or increasing volume of tests) for 14 days.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Covid-related death of a member of the campus community.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Possible Responses<\/b><b>:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Increased physical distancing requirements on campus.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Increased sanitation.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Short suspension of classes to enable facility closures for cleaning \/ contact-tracing \/ consultation with local health officials \/ enhanced physical distancing \/ etc.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Reduced or phased occupancy.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Closure of some or all residence halls.\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Note: concerns re safe travel depending on health conditions, travel restrictions and final destinations<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Note: concerns re safe alternatives (whether any occupancy would remain)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Transition to remote learning.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All-campus closure.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Guidance Document: Decision Triggers for Discussion of Closure, Partial Closure, and\/or Reduction of On-Campus Presence of Students and\/or Personnel 大象传媒 Western\u2019s plan for a safe return to campus is the result of hundreds of hours of research, planning and consultation with campus and community experts. As with our other COVID-19 policies and guidelines, the following [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/covid-19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1779"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/covid-19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/covid-19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/covid-19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/covid-19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1779"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/covid-19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1779\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1780,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/covid-19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1779\/revisions\/1780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/covid-19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/covid-19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/covid-19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}